


Naturalized Citizens

by brightephemera



Series: Vierce!verse [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2019-08-14 11:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 9,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16491983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightephemera/pseuds/brightephemera
Summary: Resistance fighter Vierce Savins and Imperial officer Elara Dorne came to the Republic from different directions, and it took a long time for them to get used to one another. Now that they have, everything has changed. This series is a collection of short unconnected scenes that follow Overcoming Adviercity.





	1. Fantasies

(set during Vierce Savins' Trooper Act 3)

Elara and I had been making out in my quarters. Maybe that sounds stupid, but we only had five minutes and frankly I didn’t think she trusted me to do more than that anyway. We were closer every day. Sometimes more literally than others.

I leaned over her on the bed and slid my fingertips over her strict yellow hairstyle, aching for the day when I could undo it. “When did you first think about us doing this?”

Elara looked at me and arched an eyebrow. “I didn’t. I thought about you finally falling off a cliff.”

“Ah. That’s fair.” Sort of funny, though. “I thought about you slipping on one of your datapads and falling out of the ship. On my nicer days I imagined it was on the ground at the time.”

“I thought about your punching bag getting you in the face.”

“I thought about you getting your paperwork clobbered by some red-ink-happy guy in Command. You’d be crying for a week.”

“Vierce, that was petty.”

“I know.”

She sobered and looked up at me. “I didn’t think about us doing this.”

“I’ve been churning out fantasies nonstop ever since I figured it out.”

“So…since a month ago?” She smiled. “You’re going to have to tell me about that.”

I ducked down, kissed her throat, listened to her shorted breath before pressing a kiss between her breasts, trying really, really hard not to paw. “You’ll get more than telling. Time and place. You just let me know.”

She slid a hand into my hair and abruptly gripped it. “Here,” she whispered. “Now. Anything we can do in thirty seconds.”

I would stop. Of course I would stop, and she knew it and furthermore she enjoyed what she was doing to my shoulders and tingling back for every blessed second we had left. “Not entirely sure that–”

She shut me up, again, racing the chrono like we’d been doing ever since we understood we were doing it. The petty things had been such a waste of time, but there’s something about a brand new second unspent, and the things that happen when you know exactly what you’ll spend it on.


	2. The Botanical Garden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce shows Elara around his home city's gardens.

Elara and I got up early. Dawn this time of year sidled right between two of the newer buildings into the gap in Mama’s guest room blinds. I couldn’t even complain. We were on leave, and West Ford City was waiting for us.

We ate quietly in the kitchen, washed our dishes so as not to leave a trace, and headed out to the rented speederbike. I wore a helmet rather than arguing with her. She smiled sweetly, put on her own helmet, and climbed on behind me.

“The botanical gardens aren't open yet,” I said. “We can go to the park behind. One of the best spots in the city.” We got moving.

Early morning traffic in the city is mostly freight, unwieldy trucks, loaded barges scudding along about three stories up. We left the major shipping lanes, though, and headed out to a place of shorter buildings, including the dull orange stone façade of the botanical gardens. I gave it a miss and drove around the stone complex to a heavily forested pair of city blocks.

“Old Garden,” I said, parking on the gravel. “They’re the only trees we’ve got for about an hour in any direction, but some guy felt strongly enough to plant ‘em here.”

She took off her helmet and stepped free of the speeder, staring up. “You know this is the first place on Kegled I’ve been that looked even a little like the forests on Dromund Kaas? –I mean that in a…”

“I know.” The funny thing was, I did. Some things stay in your bones, and not all of them are bad. I would rather she could tell me about it than not.

She pointed at a tree covered in trailing plumes of flowers. “Those are spectacular. What are they?”

“I’m not sure.”

The world missed a beat.

She said, politely, “You lived here for twenty years and never learned the local trees?”

I shrugged and pointed. “Lydian fell and broke her wrist over there when she was eight. Eddy and me used to...” I suddenly repented my choice of subject… “talk past sunset. Park was closed, but we were kids. Kirsk took a windfall branch once and started carving it into paperweight good luck charms to sell. They caught him when he started cutting his own windfalls to stabilize the supply chain.”

Elara took a few steps up the beaten path. “I can easily see twelve species from here. Are they all native?”

“Not sure. It hasn't changed much in twenty-seven years, that’s as far as I go. – Careful!”

She looked back at me, startled.

“That's murderweed you’re leaning over. It has this oil. Sent Vrenda to the hospital once when she ran into a patch to get a droid. Try not to…in fact, try not to breathe.”

Elara tilted her head to read the little black placard somebody had installed at some point under the shrub. “This says ‘common green-pip.’”

“I think ‘murderweed’ gets the idea across better. They should’ve cut it back, not given it a friendly label. I guess it comes back every spring no matter what you do.”

Elara looked around at the canopy. She seemed thoughtful.

“Elara?”

Her voice came in softer than usual. “Can…we visit this when it’s raining?”

“Any time you want. I’ll call in some favors with the weather bureau.”

“I’m glad. You know this place.”

“It’s home. For a while during the occupation I had to stay away, but I don’t forget.” I took a few steps past her into the cool shade. “Wait til you see the Old Guy. Species also unknown, in case you were wondering, but I can tell you how many pairs of pants Kirsk tore trying to climb it.”

She laughed. “Do try to save something for the gardens’ tour.”

“Ninety-nine percent sure the botanical gardens don’t know who accidentally-on-purpose escaped that climbing red flower all over the block a few years back. I told her not to plant it, but what do I know? Apparently I have no eye for beauty.” I grinned and beckoned. “Come on.”


	3. Dancing Scheme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce attends a wedding with Kirsk and Elara. This is set at least a year after the end of Overcoming Adviercity.

Elara glowed. “Kirsk, you made it!”

I didn’t. “Kirsk. You made it.”

“Don’t look so thrilled,” my little brother said cheerfully.

My mind should’ve been on our mutual friend’s wedding, or at least on how Elara looked in her short jacket and long purplish dress, but darker things loomed. “Do you want to warn me in advance what humiliating thing you’re going to tell her this time?”

“It tastes better if I let the suspense marinate. Elara, you look amazing. That jacket. Naboo?”

Elara smiled. “Off the rack on Coruscant, but I’ll believe you on the origin.”

“He shops a lot,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I wouldn’t antagonize me if I were you.”

“Yes, you would.”

“Well, I would, but you shouldn’t.” He passed a hand over his slicked-back brown hair. “Humiliating things, remember?”

“Think real hard about my revenge, brother.”

“Fine.” Kirsk’s smile was white and toothier than usual, braced between burnished cybernetics. They kept us from looking too similar. “Now. I believe we’ve got a wedding to guest at.”

Much later, at the reception, we lined up at the dinner table together. Kirsk made an elaborate bow. “Milady. Do you dance?”

Elara looked at me, not out of any serious expectation that I would object. Since eye-rolling couldn’t physically impact my brother I just cracked a grin. “He’s good,” I said honestly.

The floor was crowded; today’s happy couple had a lot of friends and a lot of them danced. I preferred not to be the bantha trying to avoid treading on toes. So I just watched Kirsk float off with Elara on his arm. He pulled her to a comfortable range and started moving with a blend of cheerful verve and straight-out, scary expertise.

Well, okay, I would find it scary. Elara didn’t mind in the slightest.

Four years of in-the-trenches combat will teach you a lot about how a person can move when she has to. This was different, and it was nice to see. She looked good from her coiffed head to her strappy heels, and say what you would about Kirsk’s priorities, he knew how to make someone look their best. Kirsk twirled her out and back and she laughed. Her blonde ponytail bobbed with every turn. How an idiot like Kirsk can get along with a class act like Elara I never would know, but they did get along. I had never tried a girlfriend Kirsk didn’t like and I wasn’t sure it would ever work if I did.

She kept her hand on his elbow until they returned to the table. “And that,” said Kirsk, “is how it’s done.”

“Please,” I said, and stood. He’s not short, but I could tower over him. “I could probably show you a thing or two.”

“Show her,” Kirsk said airily. “ _I_ don’t follow.”

“Ahem,” Elara murmured.

Kirsk grinned. “You’re a special case.”

“Another round?” I said to Elara.

“With pleasure.” Sure, I prefer not to be the bantha in the room, but even a bantha is occasionally inspired. She was steady in my arms, the music was good, and, to be honest, I was besotted. We danced and laughed until we both wanted some water. I slid my arm around her and took a look around. Kirsk was just bowing away from a pretty stranger. He met us back at the table.

And he shot Elara a bright smile. “Told you we could get him to.”

I set my glass down hard. “Hey!”

“Press button A, get adorable and photogenic dance from person B. That’s just science.”

“I don’t suppose you got actual pictures,” said Elara, laughing.

“I’ll send them to you before we go home. Immortalizing your second best dance so far this year, I imagine.”

Her and me, caught in time by a devious trap. And to think I’d been worried about humiliating back story. Classic Kirsk misdirection. “You’re a monster,” I said.

Kirsk’s merry brown eyes took us both in. “Yeah, but you’re happy.”


	4. Name's Savins, Vierce Savins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part of Havoc Squad is captured. Can rescue come in time?

I hate Imp speeches.

“With this luridly detailed holorecording, all will see the might of the Empire - and, heh, the impotence of its vaunted heroes.”

I should note at this point that M1-4X was bolted to the wall, his blaster turrets smeared in enough explosive gel to guarantee his total destruction if he tried anything.

“And your loyal friend will be the instrument of your destruction! I don’t have to extract his power core. Just lever this Hall effect synergy tap over his chassis–” the Imp officer did – “and, voila. Every ampere of current powering his lights, his servos, his central processing unit, his vocabulator…directly powers the laser that’s going to gut you.”

I should note at this point that I was chained spread-eagle on an inclined table that had a bright red target between my feet with a line running straight up into me.

“Sir!” yelled Forex. “I will never submit to their diabolical scheme!”

“Pipe down, Forex. If you talk, I die.”

“Oh. Yes, sir.”

The cable left the lever arm and hung loosely from the nasty laser apparatus on the ceiling. A red glow was coming up in the emitter’s core.

“Forex,” I said, pausing my struggle against my durasteel chains. “Your eyes?”

The droid’s eyes were still a low orange. “This is the minimum level for safe interactions with standard humanoids in this environment, sir.”

“It’s not safe for me. Turn ‘em off.” I twisted to get back to pulling.

“M1-4X!” oozed the Imp. “You served the Empire once, although the whole muddle was a little confusing. Now you will serve again.” He paused expectantly. “Well? Speak.”

M1-4X let out a pained but defiant squeak. I guess it was his best compromise. Meanwhile I twisted one manacle a tenth or twentieth time. No luck.

The Imp stopped his pacing and folded his hands behind his back. “Suppose, arrogant droid, that while you’re clattering about playing the hero, you knock a child over so she skins her knee.”

M1-4X hissed softly.

“She’s crying now. You made her cry. Why aren’t you helping her, droid? Why aren’t you helping the Republic?”

“Sir!” His eyes flared brilliantly. “I can hold back no longer! This dastardly fiend’s cruel hypothetical–”

I stopped listening then because the laser emitter spat and sent a glowing red shaft of knifelike energy to a point just between my legs.

I stopped struggling.

“Colo- _nel_.” That frigid call stilled everything in the room except, regrettably, the creeping laser.

The Imp shoved a hand toward the door, palm out. “Go away, whoever you are. This is my triumph. Mine!”

“The Ministry of Logistics disagrees. Have you filed a 2601(a)(c) for this facility?”

M1-4X whined again. “Lieutenant! I am relieved–”

I yelled across his blunder. “Forex, _think less_.”

“Yes sir,” he said, almost as contritely as I would’ve liked.

“What did you bring this… _audience_ for?” Elara Dorne said, gesturing contemptuously at the lineup of Imperial troopers. Well, apart from the fact that it had taken all of them to get me and Forex down? “Prison transfer protocol is clearly laid out in Standard Code, Section 11, paragraph 241. Trussing these…monsters…up so creatively hardly seems necessary for their disposal.”

The Imp calculated her rank pins. He calculated his chances. “Gaze upon my triumph, General!”

“Section D, Paragraph 213, did you even _read_ that before erecting this frankly laughable monument to excess? I’m closing this operation down, Colonel. You can take it up with Darth Ravage.”

M1-4X’s enthusiasm wavered. “Darth Ravage?”

The man’s enthusiasm wavered. “Darth Ravage?”

“You,” she said, turning to the soldiers.

“Fast,” I coughed, very, very loudly.

She spared me a glance from the corner of her eye. The laser was north of my spread knees. “Ah,” she said, and walked over to Forex. “That,” she said, pointing at the laser emitter with infinite disdain, “is not up to code. I suppose you’re going to tell me this little science fair–”

She pulled the power cable. The laser vanished.

“Now wait a minute–”

“Health and Safety Standard Procedures volume 3 – read up on it sometime. Where is your sidearm, soldier?”

“I set it aside to keep the droid from–”

“Good.” She drew hers and directed her next words to the gallery. “This operation is cancelled. Cooperate and we’ll have you back in service at our earliest convenience. Fail to cooperate and, well. I brought friends.” She peeled her lips away from her teeth. “Now set your weapon down in front of me and leave via that door.” She took up a taut parade rest and watched.

I lay there and didn’t get vivisected, so that’s something.

There was quite a fuss outside, probably the rest of Havoc Squad taking prisoners where they could and shots where they had to. Whatever they were doing, it was Vik who came back in and started clearing Forex’s blasters. Yuun came in shortly after that, located the key to my shackles, and let me go.

And then I was facing her. She had pulled her Imperial uniform jacket off, leaving a clean Republic-issue T-shirt.

I accepted the jacket from her and tore the insignia off. “You okay?”

For answer she covered her mouth with her hand and leaned facefirst into my chest. I held her there. “Sh-sh,” I murmured. “It’s okay. You got us through.”

She spoke very quietly. “Next time ask me to swim through a pool of cyborg sharks? Something less difficult.”

“Sharks it is, Elara. I promise.”

Something shook the room. A trio of fat plasma blasts streaked overhead into the far wall. Forex stomped up to greet me. “Ready to defend Republic innocents again, sir!”

“But not to the exclusion of your CO’s body parts,” I said firmly. Forex looked skeptical. “Oh, never mind.”

 


	5. Dreamless and Dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elara Dorne thinks about the beginnings of her new life with Vierce.

The city streetlights filtered through the guest room blinds in burnished yellow. The sounds were distant, reassuringly busy. And in the crook of Elara’s arm, Vierce Savins rested his faintly snoring head.

This was the Savins house, and it had come to be home.

Vierce was breathing peacefully. It had taken weeks for the tension to leave him every time she came to bed. She thought the dreams had lessened since he had substituted a standard anti-anxiety shot for the toxic cocktail he had used to self medicate for so long. Only that superhuman constitution had kept him alive long enough to make that switch.

She pressed her nose to his hair and breathed. He usually took the standard-issue soap off the ship with him, claiming he liked it better. Mama Savins had made a dignified face and started stocking outrageously girly bath products, which suited Elara and made Vierce very nearly mouth off to his mother.

He stirred at her unvoiced laugh, but didn’t say anything.

The sheer heat production of his long and musclebound body was getting difficult, but getting up to open the window was out of the question. [He had already taken on Hoth in single combat and won](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fworks%2F10608819%2Fchapters%2F24199800&t=NGE2ZmE2MmE3NTU0YWI4NWFmYWFhMDBjMzk0NzIzZGZmNWM0YzZhMyx5azAzY1Vocw%3D%3D&b=t%3AKLI-mJE_8SHWqX-eodVGhg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fserialephemera.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F171706540652%2Ffluff-fluff-fluff&m=1). She could accept some overheating for that.

She rested her cheek by his rough jaw where the scarring met the stubble and let the distant traffic lull her. She loved the sense of busyness in a durasteel jungle, that vibrating sense of ongoing sentience. She had given up home and family, by choice, a long time ago. The new one was more than she had ever had any reason to hope for.

The new one, here in the drowsy glow of a no-name planet remembered chiefly for surviving long enough for someone friendly to reach it, was really nice.


	6. The Slope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce takes Elara sledding on a childhood familiar slope.

“I could bring out the other sled,” said Elara.

“It’s better with two people,” I insisted. “This can take us both.”

“It’s less a tube and more a life raft for four you repurposed for the occasion.”

“Well, yes,” I said reasonably. Being two meters tall and more muscle than not made finding appropriate sledding equipment challenging. “Ready?”

Elara looked down the slope. I wondered whether she saw it as I did: a long snowy blue-shadowed straightaway with a promise of speed, a turn with the exciting obstacle of clusters of trees and shrubs, endless possibility beyond. Well, endless possibility came out to a sharp turn and a second straightaway, long and icy, and it would coast to a halt near a few parking spots for the transports that would bring us back for another run.

The wind sheared right through my hair to sting my scalp, and I let it blow.

Elara’s nose was bright red. “You really should put on a hat. Body heat is lost most rapidly through the face and head.”

“And here I thought you’d insist on a helmet.”

“An insulated helmet would be optimal,” Elara said primly.

I pushed the sled.

Elara squeaked and fell back as I jumped all the way onto the big tube. I grabbed rope handles on both sides. Together we accelerated down the slope, throwing puffs of powdery snow with every bump on the way. The wind rose from a sigh to a metallic whistle in my ears. I would’ve loved to keep my arms around her but we needed a steady hand on the way between the trees at the turn. I’m daring, not crazy.

“Lean!” I yelled in her ear.

“What?” she yelled.

“Lean left!” And there we barely made it, flying under an arch of branches.

“This is a deathtrap,” gasped Elara as we slewed into the final straightaway.

“Only if you’re not paying attention!” I laughed with the lightness of familiarity. “You like it?”

I might possibly have steered into a jump. It just works out that way sometimes.

“We are getting helmets,” squeaked Elara while we both bounced from the impact.

She sounded serious. “Promise.” I let go the rope handles and settled my arms around her. She leaned into me, two layers of thick coats keeping us separate but joined in momentum. “Totally safe from here on,” I assured her collar.

“Yes, until you do it again,” Elara told the wind.

“Until _we_ do it again. If you…?”

Elara laughed, the sound that made the whole maneuver worthwhile. “Definitely.”


	7. Kirsk's Bedtime Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirsk rehearses for the stories he'll tell in the future.

Kirsk and I had lined up on Coruscant, and we were sitting out on a pavilion, watching the sky’s glow.

Kirsk seemed more thoughtful than usual. "I thought up a story the other day."  
  
"Oh? What's that?"  
  
He spread his hands in an imaginary text scroll across the skyways. "Once upon a time there was a soldier with his head so far up his unmentionables that he couldn't even see the gorgeous, good-hearted woman in front of him. Eventually, after being prodded by literally everyone he's ever known, he managed to extract his head and catch her before she got away. The end."  
  
I flicked a light swat in his direction. "That's a terrible story, Kirsk."  
  
"I'll be telling it to your children as a bedtime story one of these days."  
  
"You're not telling my kids stories about how far my head was up my– anything. And who said I was having kids?"  
  
Kirsk grinned. "Addendum: He's still pretty clueless. The end."


	8. The Picnic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aleksei Dorne checks where he's at.

Aleksei set down the water bottle on the picnic blanket and cast a look down the hill to where Vierce was heading to the park’s refresher.  “Can I ask you something very impolite?”

Kirsk looked cheerful. “Most of my favorite things are impolite. Fire away.”

Aleksei pointed after Vierce’s retreating figure. “What happened? The man I met on Nar Shaddaa would’ve shot me for sneezing.”

“But that’s when you were an Imp,” said Kirsk. “Now you’re not.”

“He’s still fierce,” said Elara. “But the hair trigger has been significantly rebalanced.”

“Your fault,” said Kirsk. “It’s possible to love a guy whose entire interior monologue is ‘AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH,’ believe me, I know, but it’s been a lot easier since you set him straight.”

Elara smiled. “He does listen to you, you know. He’d never admit it, not even to me, but the signs are there.”

“Your mouth to the Maker’s ears, sister. Vierce needs dynamic, charitable, devilishly good-looking volunteers to keep him on the straight and narrow, and that takes it down to you and me.” He eyed Aleksei benevolently. “You’re in his good book, full stop. And believe me, if I can stay there it’s got to be dead easy for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vierce's first encounter with Aleksei Dorne was, naturally, on Nar Shaddaa. https://archiveofourown.org/works/10608819/chapters/23587110


	9. Funding the Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce and Jorgan talk money.

I squinted at the display. I shuffled some numbers. I squinted some more. The door slid noisily open and Jorgan popped his head in.

"Am I interrupting, sir?" he said.

"Nah, just bookkeeping," I said, closing the file. "Come on in."

"You don't look happy about it. Money troubles?"

"No, just the opposite. I've got a decent salary coming in and to be honest I don't know what to do with most of it. I've been sending some home for Mama for, well, ever, but the shop's turning a profit and she's got Glend now, too. I'm not really needed on that front. She's threatening to turn back any credits I send her way."

Jorgan smirked. "So set up a charitable fund for your brother?"

I made a face at him. "I've been avoiding putting that name on it. Kirsk can dip out of the regular rainy day fund. I...was thinking about setting something aside for a house. Never used to see myself as settling, but if I ever come home I guess I'd better not count on living with Mama."

"You figure you'd be settling with someone." There was a smile somewhere in there.

It seemed like bad luck to say it out loud, so I didn't. "Maybe." Just the thought of having a home with Elara loosed butterflies in my stomach. The good kind. "It can't hurt to set something aside, just in case."

"No, sir. Smart move."

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I think so."

I didn't tell him that there was something even before a house, or might be. Elara didn't have any family here to help with arrangements for...for getting married. The thought left me dizzy, and had ever since it first came to me. It wasn't ready yet, obviously, but I could at least start on having something practical to offer her.

Jorgan cleared his throat.

"Sorry," I said. "You were saying?"

He grinned, fangs bared. "I was saying, Savins, all I have to do is mention her name some days and you just check out."

"Sorry," I repeated. "I am. Consider me officially paying attention. – Wait, you didn't even say her name."

The grin widened. "No. The indirect reference is enough."

"Very funny. Was there a change of subject coming up?"

"Sure, any time you're on planet to catch it."

"I don't know why I tell you anything, Jorgan."


	10. The Orphanage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Havoc Squad visits an orphanage.

“What?” I said.

The two seven-year-old Twi’leks at my sides were skinny, but they were practically fizzing with glee. “Pick us up!” they said again.

I held out my arms. “Hang onto my hands,” I said, and pushed up toward the sky. The two small children rose with me, crowing all the way.

It was all I could do not to suggest tossing them. Tossing the residents in an orphanage was almost certainly against a rule.

Elara looked over from a circle by the crafts table as if sensing the imminent rules violation and laughed. “You’ll have to give everyone turns,” she called. “Vek, Indy, why don’t you go see if Major Savins can pick you up.”

“He has to pick up us too,” said a defending liftee.

Well…I could.

They had questions, the kids. What was it like to fire a blaster. Who was the meanest Imperial we ever fought. Did we ever get captured. (No, of course not, we’re _Havoc_. The kid was booed down and Elara stepped in to calm things before Vik could get a proper head of indignation going.)

Could I lift more than Forex.

I looked at Forex. He looked at me.

“The Major’s capabilities are naturally greater than those of the average human, which is part of what makes him ideal for the task of command in Havoc Squad,” Forex said tactfully.

“But I’m not made of durasteel,” I admitted.

Seconds later four kids were scrambling onto Forex. I gave him an encouraging look and turned away.

Yuun had figured out how to make tiny Gand figurines out of squares of felt, and a dexterous older kid figured out how to ink a Havoc logo onto glued-on buttons. One girl was trying to color match Jorgan to a scrap of orange felt. I judged he would be happier handling this without me.

It was only a few hours, and we needed to hit hyperspace right after to reach our next assignment. I made a last wave at the photographer and led us out.

Jorgan was clasping something in his hands. “She get a good likeness?” I said.

“This was her first draft. Sir.” He waved a little felt figure in my face, harrumphed, and shoved it in his pocket.

We lifted off. Elara went straight to my quarters. It wasn’t a secret at this point. I followed, when I had the chance.

She was flat on her back on the bed, arms spread. She chuckled when I got in.

“You all right?” I said.

Her eyes were sparkling. “You had fun.”

“Yeah, I did. You?”

“I think we should do more of this.” She rolled her head to face me without lifting off the bed. “Who did you want to take with you?”

“What, apart from the Break Savins’ Arms brigade? They were all pretty good.”

“Pick one.”

“The mouthful. Tattlanthia, the Rodian girl. She really listened to everything.”

“And found Forex’s power panel.”

“You’ve gotta watch for the observers. They observe. Why, who would you steal away?”

“Tattlanthia. Definitely. She blossoms when you talk to her.” She smiled impishly. “So when do we adopt her?”

“We–what?”

“I’m joking.” I loved the way she pronounced that. “Still…you looked happy.”

“Yeah. I like kids, I like being in a place that’s safe for them.”

“Good,” she said softly, and sat up. “Come here.”

I did. When I bent over her she kissed me, the kiss we’d been saving up all day for. I took my time before talking again. “You know,” I said, “it wouldn’t have to be an orphan.”

“No,” she said. “I suppose not.”

“Coruscant work for you?”

“I…do like the city planets. When it’s built over by the whole of history’s efforts…there’s a pulse to a megalopolis that you can feel when you’re walking around.”

“I never knew you liked that. Corellia? Nar Shaddaa?”

“Pulses in spades, but not where I would want to raise a child.”

Without really meaning to I’d ended up on my knees, looking up at her. The gold dust on her lashes was practically glowing at this angle, and when I set a hand at her side she arched very slightly against it. “Elara,” I said, and cleared my throat. “…Are we making plans?”

She smiled winsomely. “Informal. Nonbinding. Subject to later bouts of inspiration.”

“Was this entire good-will booking a trap?”

Big eyes. “Was it my idea?”

“I know how this works, Elara. Every good idea that passes through my brain started with you.”

She slid into thoughtfulness. “I don’t think that was ever true, Vierce.”

“I think it was true even before you decided to like me.” I tugged a loose lock of golden hair out of her ponytail and stroked it root to tip. “So what’s the big idea, Lieutenant Dorne?”

“Major Savins. I believe you already know.” Yes. Still glowing.


	11. Diving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce asks a question.

I thought about a thousand and one ways to propose to Elara Dorne, and all of them were stupid. 

It'd be nice to have a vacation. Go somewhere really jaw-dropping. Or maybe take her back home, to Kegled II? Or maybe that was too prosaic. Not like we had time off for either option. The ship would be fast but unforgivably boring. Coruscant, maybe, the next time we were there, in one of the Senate gardens or, or something. She deserved more. She deserved fountains, mountain views, whole worlds at her feet. But I didn't exactly have any of that.

So once I found her ring, I kept it with me. Risky, maybe, since in any given combat action I might end up bleeding on it. But...just in case the chance came up. Even if I didn't know how it would.

It was Naboo we ended up at one night. The base we were operating out of was pretty striking; it was surrounded on three sides by water, with a few little railing-guarded boardwalks sticking out where you could walk and look out over the sea and the incredible orange sunsets.

Elara, making the regulation fatigues look like royal gear as she always did, leaned on the railing over the orange-streaked sea. "It's beautiful."

"You like it?"

"Very much." She took my hand. "It's nice to have a few moments like this. To see what peace looks like."

"Peace is where you are." Stupid. "Even when we're fighting, I can't explain..."

"I know what you mean," she said, leaning into me.

This. It had to be. I swallowed a world-class lump in my throat and squeezed her hand, fumbling in my pocket with my free hand, pulling away just a tiny bit. "I think it's time I asked. Elara, you've been for me what no one else ever has been and I don't think anyone else ever could be. Every future I look at, I want you in it." I thumped to one knee and offered up the little box, flipping it open to show the gold ring with its green-and-clear stones. "Will you marry me?"

Her eyes went round. "Vierce," she breathed. "You mean it? I–oh, yes!" The smile on her face then I'll never forget. She held out her hand. It was shaking, either that or mine were as I picked the ring out of its box. The moment it touched her fingertip I fumbled, and then the ring was falling, bouncing, practically jumping...off the boardwalk and into the water.

I saw where it hit the surface. Where Elara's engagement ring hit the water and disappeared. Before I really realized I was moving I had my jacket off. "Hold this," I said, pushing it in Elara's general direction. "Vierce," she said, "what are–"

The water hit me like a sack of duracrete, the cold slamming me on all sides. I opened my eyes just enough to see the rocky, plant-scattered bottom, then came up for a desperate breath. Elara was yelling something. I would listen as soon as I had her ring back. I kicked my clunky boots off and dove under. I scanned the place. All the rocks looked alike here, and it was hard to tell from this side exactly where the ring had hit water. Nothing would've eaten it...right? Did ring-eating things live around here?

I had to come up for another gasping breath, then I dove again, straining my eyes. The light from above didn't make it very far through the water; every rock sat on its own little puddle of blackness. How far could the ring have moved once it went under? I couldn't lose it. Not her ring. This was it. This was the start of our life together, and I'd gone and dropped it. I circled around, trying to look everywhere at once through the murk. Finally I saw a twinkle in a crevice among the rocks. I swam to it and saw the surefire flower shape of the ring. I reached two fingertips in and tried to move it; no dice. I scrabbled at it, terrified of pushing it further in where I couldn't reach. My fingers were getting clumsy from the cold. My lungs were rolling up in a painful ball, but I couldn't leave it now. I pulled out my pocketknife and carefully, carefully eased the blade in to one side, then worried both blade and ring out.

Knife in pocket. Ring in one hand. Boots gathered in other, weighing half a ton each. I floundered up the steep rocky ascent to shore.

She was running toward me from the landward end of the boardwalk. Somebody else was running faster, outpacing her to reach me. Some guy in a brightly colored wetsuit.

"Sir!" he said while Elara caught up. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," I said through chattering teeth.

With that established, his voice shot to the hard edge of polite. "There's no swimming in this area, sir."

"Yeah. Got that." I dripped some more. The man nodded curtly and turned around to head back to the little house at the start of the boardwalk.

Since I didn't seem to have the option of sinking through the floor and disappearing, I turned to Elara, who stared at me like she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or yell. Still panting, I stuck out a hand to present the ring. "It took me forever to pick this one out," I explained weakly, and took her hand, and slid the ring onto her slender finger. An instant later she was up against me, arms around my neck, and I couldn't not kiss her when she was so close, so perfect, and – it helped a lot just then – so warm. Just the same, I tried to arch my body away a bit. Without actually stopping kissing her. "You'll get wet," I pointed out.

She made a noise deep in her throat that said she didn't take that the way I meant it. "I don't mind," she whispered, and pulled me close, and promised me without a word that everything would be all right.


	12. The Happy  News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce reports to his brother.

I shook the holo as if doing so would make my brother answer faster. It didn’t. In time, however, he showed up, slicking his hair back with one hand and eyeing me with a little surprise.

So I started. “Kirsk, when I say what I’ve got to say you’re going to say ‘I told you so,’ which in this case is a complete lie because you can’t possibly have–”

“Did you ask Miss Dorne to marry you?”

I jutted my chin out. That insufferable…“No, I grew a second head off my knee.”

“Oh.” Kirsk had a white, malicious smile. “Better tell Miss Dorne, it sounds serious.”

“I considered not saddling her with a brother-in-law like you, but we’re going to be working very far away, so I reckon we’ll manage.”

“Oh, but I get to see you at the wedding. I almost certainly won’t humiliate you. Promise.”

“And on that note, anything new with you? Trouble you’re in?”

“Brother, nothing to top that.” He was still smiling. “Give her my heartfelt good wishes. She’s gonna need them.”

“The day the universe needs your good wishes…”

“Yeah, but I mean it this time.”


	13. Heirlooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elara sits down with Mrs. Savins to share.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I should reiterate that this entire piece is just unconnected stories about people being happy, damn it. So continue to expect feel-good items without context or apology.

The master bedroom of the Savins house in West Ford City was small and spare. A bed, a chest, a vanity, a wardrobe, a patterned wall hanging, all of them well-made and old. Elara Dorne was used to austerity. By contrast this kind of simplicity seemed warm and snug.  
  
Elara’s soon-to-be mother-in-law invited her to sit on the bed; then the greying woman unpacked the chest at the bed’s foot just enough to uncover a tiered and mirrored jewelry box. She set it on the fluffy comforter and then sat opposite Elara, leaning in to push the box open.  
  
“These are lovely.” Elara passed a hand over the collection without touching anything. There wasn’t a lot, nothing so extravagant as flamegems or Coruscas, but the collection was clearly curated by someone with elegant taste. Earrings, chokers, pendants, bracelets, rings, even a couple of brooches. Elara found herself running fingertips over a chain of white pearls. “Oh, these are beautiful!”   
  
“Try them on,” urged Mrs. Savins.   
  
“Are you sure?”  
  
“If you like them. Go on.”  
  
Tentatively Elara took up the necklace, weighed it in her hand, examined the clasp, then secured the strand around her neck. It fell just to her collarbone, comfortable and cool.  
  
“Oh, they look fine on you.” Mrs. Savins was beaming in the mirror. “I’d like you to keep them.”  
  
Her second piece of jewelry since basic training. “Oh, Mrs. Savins. I couldn’t.”  
  
The older woman dimpled. “Please. I got them from my mother, and…well. At my age it’s safe to say the only daughter I’ll ever have is -in-law. That means this is for you. Besides, I never wear fancy things.” She looked to the mirror and waited for Elara to meet her reflection’s eyes. “Won’t Vierce think you’re a vision?”  
  
What did Vierce think of formal clothes? She had never had occasion to find out. Then again it was hard to imagine he’d be unhappy. As long as it was someone else doing the dressing-up, anyway. “I could save these for the day of,” she said. “I think they’ll go nicely with my dress.”  
  
“No doubt they will, dear. And anything else you like here is yours.”  
  
She could gladly take the whole package: room, home, and family. Everything these people gave away, not carelessly, but easily. Elara disciplined her voice to steadiness, barely. “Thank you.”


	14. Skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce and Elara take advantage of a wintry planet.

“What are those?”  
  
“Socks.” Vierce bent down opposite Elara and proffered the heavy woolen bundle.  
  
“I’m already wearing socks.”  
  
“You’ll want more of them. Warmth aside, ankle support is the name of the game when you’re skating.”  
  
“If I put all that on where is my ankle going to fit?”  
  
“It squishes pretty well. Trust me.”  
  
Skeptically she accepted his offering and rolled the socks up her feet and ankles. Vierce presented skates next, their blades gleaming in the bright sunlight. “Lace tight,” he said. “Then when you think it’s tight enough pull it tighter.”  
  
“Is that really necessary?” said Elara.  
  
“You’ll see.” Vierce started on his own laces, and to her bemusement he seemed to take his own advice. So she finished up, tucked the ends of her laces into the tops of her skates, and stood.  
  
“Oh.” She was just a couple of inches taller than she really ought to be, and only the rigid padding through her ankles and feet connected her to the blades at the bottom. “All right, the socks were a good idea.”  
  
Vierce grinned. In one smooth and dizzying move he rose to his full height plus skates, interrupting the sun. She wobbled, looking up at him, but didn’t lose her balance. “Come on,” he said, making some tiny motion that sent him gliding backward toward the clear iced expanse of the lake. “This is where it gets good.”


	15. Sunrise at Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce and Elara talk about the future whilst basking.

The blinds in the guest room are good enough for modesty, but in full sun they don’t do a lot. The city creeping around Mama’s well-groomed garden domain blocks the daylight from most angles, but sunrise at a certain time of year, the time with brisk winds and crackling leaves, seems to pierce straight through the old faux-wood slats.

I lay in bed, on my back, one arm laid alongside my head and the other bent around my head to rest my hand on the first. It wasn’t a great pose for circulation but I felt too comfortable to move. Elara was just at the corner of my eye, a shape under covers. We had been doing this for a while. I didn’t have to be pasted to her to feel close.

“Mm,” I said, in spite of myself.

“Mm,” echoed Elara.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” I said.

“You didn’t. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t.”

Elara sighed. “I like the sunrise.”

“So do I.”

“I’m glad we have this to come back to.”

“I’ve…I’ve thought about getting a separate place. Somewhere on this planet, if you’d want.”

There was a quiet moment. “That sounds like settling down, Major.”

“Would you like to?”

“Mm. Only if we still get these sunrises.”

“Noted. Sunrise nonnegotiable. I’m going to annoy the hell out of the next real estate agent we meet.” I waited, but she didn’t say anything else. “Elara?”

“I was just thinking.” She swung her legs off the bed and sat up, her figure streaked in horizontal yellow stripes. She didn’t even neaten anything up. “It’s one thing to be a guest here. It’s another thing entirely to own a piece of it. For myself. With you.”

“Only if you want to.” I waited.

I could hear her smiling. “We would need a nursery. And a room for your mother when she comes to visit. Or my brother. Or your brother.”

“Agreed on all counts.”

She brushed a tousled lock of hair back behind her ear. “So that’s decided.” She twisted, her profile lined in warm gold, the join of her mouth turned very slightly up. “Did you have a place in mind?”

“The city’s changed so much in seven years. Maybe someplace around the edges. I’m not sure.” Something very obvious occurred to me. “Then again…it doesn’t have to be here.”

“Vierce,” she said, quietly and emphatically. “This place is in your blood.”

“But I have a guest room here. Coruscant, Elara, city living. In an actual city. Or Corellia. If you were serious about a planet that’s got a pulse you can keep…it’s yours for the asking.”

“You remembered.” She smiled sweetly. “We don’t have to decide today.”

But what certainty did I have for tomorrow? I stopped. I was supposed to notice that kind of thinking, and not let it faze me. To be honest, her in the light, her sleep-mussed sea-green tank top hiked halfway up her pale back, her hair glowing warm where it clung to her cheek and neck…that’s what forever would look like if it had the option.

Maybe after breakfast, then. We could afford to build this future right. I sat up and smoothed her tank top down. She eased against my chest, and hand-gathered her hair, and I looped my arms around her while the morning held its lazy deliberation over whether to send the sun the rest of the way up. On the right kind of day you might not be sure of it. There was no hurry.


	16. The Current

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce describes a dream that corresponds to history.

I woke up on my own. Two minutes before the alarm. Elara was quietly reading something on dimmed screen on the far side of the bed, which was normal.

She twisted to look at me. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Just woke up. There wasn’t a noise or anything, was there?”

“Not that I noticed. You’re more sensitive than I am,” she said, and set down the screen, and eased over beside me while I sat up.

“I was dreaming,” I said.

Her bedside manner switched on so abruptly I started mentally checking off the recent injuries that she might be tending. She slid a hand around my waist, and held me there.

Which was how I figured out her concern. “Not like that,” I said. The nightmares were less and less these days. Medication, maybe, or distance and time. I don’t forget. But the remembering was slowly receding into my waking hours, where I could manage it.

“What did you dream about?” she said.

“I was on a riverbank somewhere. This river, fast. Deep. You were in it, alone. I don’t know where it was going. You reached out, and…I didn’t do anything. Helpfully. But you were close enough, you grabbed my arm and pulled yourself out. While I was doing nothing. Helpfully.” She let out a little laugh. “Sorry," I said, "I should’ve done better than that.”

“I got out. We were together. What happened then?”

I cleared my throat. “It…changed, a little. It heated up.”

She beamed. “I never thought you blushed easily before we started doing this.”

“I can’t help it, I…you weren’t _there_. Shouldn’t you be involved?”

“It’s your subconscious. There are clinical trials for interfering in that sort of thing, but you don’t want to know the side effects. For now I’ll have to allow your fantasies sight unseen.”

I cleared my throat, fighting a silly smile. “I love you.”

She leaned against me. “I was alone,” she said, “without friends, fighting a current that had nothing to do with my efforts and everything to do with a history I couldn’t change. You did help me to solid ground.”

“I don’t know what I would do if you didn’t believe that.”

“You would probably be alone,” she said simply. “Fighting a very deep current. It isn’t a comfortable way to live.”


	17. What's It Like?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vierce and Mama talk about family.

“Mama?”

I was scheduled to fly out with Elara that night. There just wasn’t time. But Elara was finishing some shopping in town with Glend, and Mama was on the front patio of the Ord Mantell hotel, looking at the orange glow of night in its largest city. It had nearly taken an act of the Senate to get everyone’s time off to line up, but here we were. The planet was better off than it had been five years ago.

She smiled thoughtfully at me. “Yes?”

I sat up straight as a schoolboy. “I was, uh, thinking about something the other day.”

“Yes?” Her hair was in the same straight style to her chin that it had always been, but it was more grey than brown these days. Her brown eyes were young in that fair face grown pensive. “What is it?”

“It was actually…um.” I looked at my hands and set about pushing words. “I…I was thinking about Da.”

She didn’t flinch, and the smile stayed on. “What about him?”

“You married him. You knew him better than I ever could. Do you think he’d be…happy? With the way things turned out?”

“There wasn’t a hateful bone in his body…but then, the occupation hadn’t started yet.” Mama was serious now. “He wasn’t exactly like you and me. He was the strong, silent type. You only got three-quarters of that, thank the Maker. He would have hated those Imperials far, far more thoroughly than I could, all without talking. In the end, I don’t think he would change his heart as well as you did.”

“For what that’s worth. He wouldn’t like her?”

“It’s hard to say. It isn’t fair to ask him now. What he dreamed for you…you were seven. We weren’t ready to talk about girlfriends yet.” She laughed softly. “You never sent me scrambling for veto power. I can’t imagine he would say no to her.”

“Would he mind me being a soldier? For someone that isn’t us?”

“And away, in danger? I never had to learn whether he could let go. That seems like an important thing to know, but we never….” She sighed. “I think he would want you to do what's meaningful for you. He loved you so, you and Kirsk both.”

“Loving Kirsk is a whole other basket of desh.”

She smiled. “And yet we do it.”

“I think about that day.” Like no one who hadn't been there deserved to know. “If there was one thing you could change about what you did that day, something you could do. I wish I’d bitten their knees off but that’s about all I could help with. What would it be?”

She gave it fair thought. “Since I could never take on three Imperial soldiers…I wish I had told him I loved him that morning. He died swearing there was no one else home, died protecting us. I had learned a little about communicating by not talking, like him. But I wish I had skipped the nonverbal and told him how much I loved him. I think he knows now, but it’s not the same as saying it.”

“No.” I looked away. “Thank you. I didn’t want to bother you.”

Her chin came up in the corner of my vision. “Vierce, there are things you don’t say. There are thoughts I can’t follow. And that’s your right, it’s part of being grown up. Though I’m afraid it had to start well before then for you. But if you want to talk, about Da, about anything, I’m here.”

I thought about it. “If there’s one thing this mandatory thing has been telling me it’s that talking doesn’t make it less…I don't know. Mine? Personal.”

“No. You might be surprised what somebody else is carrying around on the same subject.”

“I never thought about it that way.” I paused. The breeze across the patio changed direction, got warmer. “Ask you one more thing?”

“We’re chatty today.” She smiled. “A long time coming.”

It was both strange and freeing to be doing this so far from home, so far from the familiar silences. We’d had so much history we couldn’t share, with me out in the resistance and her eking out a home among the occupiers, playing a diplomat's desperate game to avoid becoming bait. She had disavowed me a hundred times, and I'd passed by the house a hundred more without stopping to let her know I was alive. In the last months of the occupation we had drawn out parallel lives. Now I wanted part of hers, a Savins thing that wasn't blood and explosions and the needs of the many. I cleared my throat. "What was it like, being married?"

"Oh, Vierce.” It was a smile to keep tucked away in memory for moments of need. She thought about it. The noise of the traffic was a comfortable background. “It was a challenge and a blessing,” she said at last. “The strangest thing was to adapt to 'we'. Having him there, day and night, sharing my meals, my...furniture. I suppose you already have that, but it was new to me. It was wonderful, too, making stories every day. The kind of stories that help you survive, later on. Oh, but the future was ours for the taking. The house, the children, both perfect, our gifts to each other. We always meant to travel, but we never got around to it."

Her eyes were shining in the yellowed light from the strange city. "I've upset you," I said, instantly regretful. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm glad for it. I'm about to do it all again, with Glend. I'm about to see you start it.” Another few seconds’ consideration. She leaned forward. “Dear one, it's like this. Being married isn't just tacking yourself onto someone else. There's something that's made when you're married, that takes a part from each of you but is distinct. That's what your friends celebrate and promise to support at the party. That's what you have when the two of you are light years apart. Your marriage may be your lifeline in a crisis or your lazy Sunday on the grass...even when your spouse can't be there. The promise remains. 

“That said, you can't just assume when you start out that sharing is instant and thorough. Your thoughts, your past, your dreams? That's not an automatic transfer. It's something you have to put out there, into your marriage, every day, or else what's the point? And it's something you have to be ready to receive, and learn the language of, as you love the person offering it.

“I don't mean to make it sound like a chore. It’s the best of a hobby and a vocation. And something better, if you let it be.

“You chose someone. She's going to be your wife. You're going to make a marriage with her and keep it alive with what you do and say. And you two together are going to do it well. I suppose, if I had a blessing, that would be it. To two individuals who chose one thing in common. You have every possibility before you.”

“Mama.” I cleared my throat. I wasn't sure what else to say. “I'll try.”

“That’s all we can do.” She dimpled. “But look at me, chattering on. Let's get some tea ready, they ought to get back any moment.” We stood and I held the door for her to get inside. She eyed me shrewdly on the way up to our rooms. “I’ll only say this once. Whoever mandated that ‘thing’ had an inspired idea, and I'm proud of you for following through. And don't you go thinking you only have to talk to me when it's assigned.”

Oh, she should know better. “That's not what happened. As for the inspiration, blame Elara. She threatened to call this off if I didn't try.”

“We all have our ways of letting each other know.” Mama smiled and moved on. Before that moment I had never given her enough credit for the emotional volume that fit into her signature knowing look. “Take down the teapot, please,” she sang as she bustled into our little kitchenette. I was tall enough to still be useful. We all have our ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What Vierce doesn't realize is that Mama uses a stepstool to put the teapot out of reach whenever he's home and itching to be useful. We all have our ways.


End file.
